Part 1. Quantum topology: Chern-Simons theory and the Jones polynomial 1 1. The Jones Polynomial: 1/24/17 1 2. Introduction to quantum field theory: 1/31/17 4 3. Canonical quantization and Chern-Simons theory: 2/7/17 7 4. Chern-Simons theory and the Wess-Zumino-Witten model: 2/14/17 9 5. The Jones polynomial from Chern-Simons theory: 2/21/17 13 6. TQFTs and the Kauffman bracket: 2/28/17 15 7. T...

We quantize the Maxwell Chern Simons theory in a geometric representation that generalizes the Abelian Loop Representation of Maxwell theory. We find that in the physical sector, the model can be seen as the theory of a massles scalar field with a topological interaction that enforces the wave functional to be multivalued. This feature allows to relate the Maxwell Chern Simons theory with the q...

We consider Wilson loop observables for Chern-Simons theory at large N and its topological string dual and extend the previous checks for this duality to the case of links. We find an interesting structure involving representation/spin degeneracy of branes ending on branes which features in the large N dual description of Chern-Simons theory. This leads to a refinement of the integer invariants...

We define an extended Bloch group and show it is isomorphic to H3(PSL(2,C);Z). Using the Rogers dilogarithm function this leads to an exact simplicial formula for the universal Cheeger-Simons class on this homology group. It also leads to an independent proof of the analytic relationship between volume and Chern-Simons invariant of hyperbolic manifolds conjectured in [14] and proved in [17], as...

We find the inconsistency of dimensional reduction and naive dimensional regularization in their applications to Chern-Simons type gauge theories. Further we adopt a consistent dimensional regularization to investigate the quantum correction to non-Abelian Chern-Simons term coupled with fermionic matter. Contrary to previous results, we find that not only the Chern-Simons coefficient receives q...